Afterlife
by mortedraco
Summary: Zathuris is a Dark Templar in a time that takes place between SCBW and SCWoL


Afterlife

Walking amongst the charred remains of Zerg, he stares at his fallen comrade, he bows his head in mourn and continues on into the remains of Aiur. The smell of burned flesh and rotting carcasses fill the air as puffs of ash slowly linger through the as well and the green glow of his warp blade at his side, humming, chanting.

Slowly he cloaks himself, the slow, constant humming of his blade slowly dies down and disappears altogether. He crouches and moves deeper into the city passing by a destroyed pylon, the crystal shattered and the ring warped, he hides behind the fragments of the shattered crystal as a small group of Zerglings pass by.

He staggers down an alleyway as the hunger gnaws at him, he can feel the cloaking fluctuating and can hear the scratching of claws against stone as the group of Zerglings come back, he looks down to the stone and sees a trail of blue blood, his own blood. As the Zerglings turn down the alleyway, following the trail of blood, he tries to keep the cloaking on until they finally surround him, surround the pool of blood, they look at the wall and watch as blood drips from thin air suddenly in an instant a flash of green three of them are missing half of their head the fourth rears back just in time to miss the cleave and slams down a claw as hard as it can but he comes around with the blade and takes off the claw and stabs it through the top of the head, severing the lower mandibles, the Zergling lets out a loud screech, he twists the blade and the sound pulls out the blade but the carcass twitches and the claw comes around and stabs him in the arm,he lets out a muffled grunt and pulls it out and runs.

As he slows down to catch his breath he finds it hard to breath in the air, the air grows thicker in the amount of ash and the stench of decay grows stronger, as he starts to walk further on his arm starts throbbing he looks down and knows immediately that his wound is infected, he raises his warp blade and presses it to the wound, a sharp burning sensation shoots up his arm, the pain makes him wail but he immediately silences himself. After the pain subsides he continues down the road, the lights to the capitol Nexus lead the way.

An hour of walking passes and he starts to hear the sound of stalker blasts and can see the main entrance to the Nexus, the pillars in the front all knocked over and the grand staircase obliterated to near unusable, the crystal on top hovering, barely glowing to see at all. As he nears the Nexus he notices the hordes of Zerg overwhelming the building, he hears the sound of energy blades to the alleyway on his left, he immediately turns and runs down it ignoring the pain. After he turns around a corner he sees the bluish glow of zealot energy swords he quickly moves to greet them, only to have two burrowed Hydralisk block him, immediately the closest one slashes at him but the claw only meets the green glow of the warp blade and Severs it, it reels back and howls while coming around with the other claw going low while the one in the back splits open its head and arms the spines and fires them with blinding speed, suddenly he vanishes and immediately reappears behind the first sending the blade through its torso and into its head, severing the head and killing it, then he disappears again as the second sends another volley of the acidic spines at him but they bounce off the first Hydralisk carapace, cracking it. confused the Hydralisk looks around for the dark Templar but it turns to late to see the blue light go into its face as soon as the green into its back. after they scout the area and decide its clear they meet in the alley way.

"Anttorro'Adune dark Templar" the first zealot bows his head.

"Anttorro'Adune zealot, what is the integrity of the Nexus, is there still a chance?" he looks around to make sure nothing is there

"The Executor has ordered a full planetary retreat... Aiur is lost" they all look to the sky and watch as scores of Mutalisks and brood lords flyover across the orange sky. As the smell of smoke grows in the air they hear a series of explosions, the dark Templar and the two zealots run to an intersection to see their worst fears become real, they watch in horror as the capital Nexus, a tribute to all they had accomplished, implodes, sending debris everywhere and sending waves of psionic energy everywhere, now, they realize, the once glorious Protoss race, is no more.

After the search throughout the rubble of the Nexus, looking for survivors they give up, not being able to sense anything they assume the worst. With the capitol Nexus destroyed and Aiur in ruins the only thing they know is they need to get out of there before the creep reaches them. With one more look around and the vivid memories of what their home world used to look like a few days before, what once was a beautiful, prosperous city is now an Zerg infested graveyard. Zathuris walks over the the zealots and they watch with helpless despair planted into their soul.

"Today, my brothers, has been a terrible day, the end of Aiur has come, but the Protoss are not gone, so long as we live so will our race. We will move on to Shakuras, their we will live with our brothers and restart, the destruction of Aiur will be avenged." As he finishes up the speech he looks up to the sky watching all that remains of the Protoss flying out of the atmosphere, Mutalisks and brood lords chasing after but a Protoss carrier assists. He looks back down, feeling slightly dizzy he looks to the zealots but both are turned away, he collapses and the descends into an black abyss.

When he finally awakes, there are two high Templar's standing over him, chanting rhythmical, and a drone to the side injecting something into him. as the vial of greenish fluid empties Zathuris tries to get up but is immediately blocked by a bluish glow, he looks around to see a shield generator setting next to him, active. He tries to break through the shield but his body is forced down with a psionic wave that rattles his bones and pins him to the table, as the bluish glow of the shield subsides he looks up to the high Templar's standing over him.

"why am i here? why are you keeping me cap-" _silence_

Another psionic wave hits him making his bones feel like their splintering,a few minutes pass and his vision starts to blur and darken - sleep now - slowly he feels himself descending into a deep sleep, he fights it but can't. pictures flash to and from his vision of the battle for Aiur Zerglings coming at him, Hydralisks jumping up, he can even feel the pain of being stabbed again, picture after picture flash through his head for what seems an eternity.

Finally he wakes up and looks around the Templars are gone and the shield generator is off along with his stuff sitting on a chair to the side. once he gathers the strength he sits up and grabs his equipment and tests out the warp blade, he sends a wave of psionic energy through it, nothing happens, he sends another stronger wave through it and it glows to life, a much brighter more intense green,a sudden realization strikes him of where he is.

"Shakuras" a wave of powerful psionic energy emanates from him and knocks over a pan and the chair in the room "I must get out of here now" as he runs down the hallway and through an archway he enters a large storage room, he ducks down behind a crate as a couple of drones carrying Vespean gas and other minerals go through a large opening leading to the outside, he cloaks himself and sneaks out the door and enters the ebony dark that envelops the planet he looks around to see that the street he is on is abandoned. He runs down a series of roads until he runs into an courtyard area. A pylon sits in the middle of the courtyard while behind it sits an gateway he runs across the courtyard listening to the rock crunch under him, he dives at the gateway only to be knocked back by a wave of psionic energy he immediately flips mid air and lands on his feet only to stumble backwards after being hit again- _do not resist_ -Zathuris cloaks and runs to the side but the high Templar sends a surround blast of psionic energy knocking him off his feet, he gets back up and wipes the blood from his nose and charges the Templar again this time sending a psionic blast of his own that hits the Templar and sends him back, before the Templar had a chance to get up Zathuris stabs him as the Templar chokes on his blood Zathuris twists the blade and watches the Templar fade away and continues through the portal.

"I'm sorry my brother"

Chapter 2

Four years after the fall of Aiur, and most of the remaining Protoss have retreated to the twilight engulfed planet known as Shakuras, when they land they are met with hostilities from the Nerazim , the Dark Templar's, old quarrels arise and the fight after a while they put their differences aside only to be greeted with a new problem.

Zathuris walks down a street full of despair,avoiding being seen any more than a glance, he stops and looks up to the violet sky when suddenly his gazing is interrupted by an alarm, he quickly runs to the edge of the cliff and looks over to see a dark sea of red he looks over to the gate watching as the photon cannons start firing out of the gate. He quickly cloaks and drops down and shimmy across the ledge of the cliff and climbs down to a lower level and looks over again, this time being able to see better detail, legions of Zerglings and Hydralisk, followed by dozens of Ultralisks and various other Zerg species. As he takes in the vastness of the swarm that had followed him through he climbs back up he looks back at the gate, one out of the six photon cannons are destroyed and there are about a dozen Zealots and seven Stalkers defending the gate, but no dark Templars. Immediately he runs over the the gate, cloaked, and joins the fight, the stone arch is crumbling and the ramp up is littered with dead Zerg. As he hacks apart countless numbers of Zerg another photon cannon explodes and most of the Zealots are dead, he turns around to retreat as he sees an Overlord coming, but freezes at the sight of a giant brown shapeless blob looms in the distance, as he finally turns around the only thing he sees is the stream of a blue energy blade, just enough space to dodge it but he is immediately sliced at by a Hydralisk, completely unaware of his being there, soon he is ducking and dodging between the Hydralisk and the Zealot, unable to find an opening out, finally he gets a chance and shoves the void blade through the lower jaw and cuts a semi-circle partially dislodging the head and severing the lower left mandible and killing Hydralisk. the surprised Zealot jumps back only to trip and fall on a dead Zerglings claw, impaling him and killing him. He sprints out of the cluster of Zerg he turns back around and sees the brown blob has grown and is flying closer. When he runs back with the other dark Templar's but he isn't able to get their attention, he looks back to where there looking at he sees the brown blob, finally clear enough for details. Leviathan, the most intricate design available to the Zerg. He watches it come closer, six eyes darting everywhere tentacles swing back and forth as the creature gets closure, suddenly the sound of metal stretching rings through everything's ears the Zerg stand away from the leviathan, suddenly it stops moving and wiggles around, realizing its stuck the dark Templar's charge the Leviathan, all except Zathuris he stand back to see the carnage, as they get closer to the Leviathan, two antenna looking things dart their direction, suddenly all the Zerg within a 10 yard distance descend down on the Dark Templar's quickly tearing them apart, Zathuris looks closer to the area to see one green flash and a dark Templar jump into the air, but immediately grabbed by a tentacle and smashed into the ground as soon as the tentacle lifts up the dark Templar is torn apart by two passing Hydralisks, his screams forever burned to Zathuris mind.

He starts to run around the leviathan watching as the antenna track him along with other Zerg but as soon as he goes completely behind it it stops and the Zerg look his direction seemingly confused he starts running through the crowd of Zerg carving a path, he reaches half way and has to start dodging immortal blasts. He continues forward and dives just in time to be narrowly missed by a tentacle from the leviathan, it gets stuck in the ground and he starts to climb it using the blister like bubbles on the surface as footholds, as he climbs he looks up to see two more antenna tracking him on the back of the creature. He reaches half way up the tentacle and suddenly another tentacle hits the one he is on just above him he jumps to the other tentacle just before the second tentacle tears off the first and throws it away he holds on tight as the leviathan shudders after it stops he continues up the second tentacle, slowly he makes his way up the fleshy tentacle to the main body. When he finally reaches the body he summons his sword, the green glow there only for a second. Attempting to keep his balance he moves towards the front, when he gets there the antenna swing at him, he stabs at one but it curves out of the way, the second one comes around and slams into his side but he grabs on to it in a vain attempt not to plummet, the antenna swings around to throw the pesky creature off of itself, but he holds on to tight. the tentacle swings close to the body and Zathuris drops off the tentacle and rolls on to the body, the antenna all turn towards him, he swirls around in an emerald rose, severing two of the antenna. They twitch and fall crushing a few zerglings below, the leviathan shudders, and releases a psychic scream, dropping Zathuris down to his knees, one antenna tries to bat him off but he flattens against the skin of the creature, he flashes up and impaled the third antenna, the creature shudders even more as the antenna Spasms and dies, he turns towards the last one as a boil looking bubble forms on the top of the antenna, suddenly it explodes in acidic puss, splashing on Zathuris's shield enveloping him in an sapphire hue, that quickly dissipates as the goo slides off, when he looks back there's an empty eyeball daring back, with an empty, almost hungry blackness within, he slashes and it watches with a cool calm look, as if it could watch the motion forever and never have to move, but as the green light would sweep and cut it in half it acts with lightning speed and precision it ducks and thrusts straight at Zathuris, it bounces harmlessly off his shield but quickly recovers and does so again then a third time until it finally becomes dazed, Zathuris takes the opportunity to thrust, as the blade plunges into the stem just below the eye, he swears that they eye looks at him and gets wider as if surprised as it wilts. In his head he can hear the leviathan panicking and screaming in silence to all but the psychic. Fear. Zathuris strides up the body to what he assumes is the head. Four empty black eyes swivel to meet him, suddenly a voice invades his mind.

"Fool, this pawns death will not stop you, I will destroy you ALL! Even now a plan by another is unfolding." he feels a weight lifted off his mind as the raspy voice dissipates in a cruel laughter, an strang anger swells as he plunges his emerald fire into the leviathan immediately it shakes violently as its entire body starts turning grey, he lifts up his blade from the body and darts off the edge, when he reaches ten feet from the ground he sends a psionic pulse into the ground cushioning his fall, when he lands he quickly turns around to see as the beast explodes in a mess of gore, pieces falling and. Crushing anything in its wake.

With the leviathan in pieces, the Protoss were able to rout the remaining Zerg, after he helped with recovery an emissary approaches Zathuris.

" I've a message for Zathuris Ast' Teleran" he looks around a little panicked.

"That is me, what is your message?" the messenger looks around and catches his breath.

"The executor wishes to see you, now." before he can ask why the messenger runs off to deliver more messages.

Chapter 3

Zathuris arrives at the Nexus the violet crystal suspended above a pedestal on top, with several other glowing purple crystals hovering around the citadel to provide light. He walks in, the hallway glows amber with a violet reflection as the crystals light up the hallway, he continues down until he reaches a bridge extending to a room suspended in mid-air, the guards at the end of the bridge tense as they see him approach.

"I am Zathuris Ast' Teleran, I was summoned by the executor." as he finishes his sentence one of the guards opens his mouth to respond, but the door slides open and a voice echoes within Zathuris mind. _Enter_. The guards obviously heard the voice to because they stood back against the wall to let him by.

Zathuris enters as his eyes adjust to the blue hue of the room. He looks around to see a few poles with ornate carvings going up them, with a brazier shape at the top but with no flame, instead a sapphire blue crystal is hovering in them, He looks down to see a blue rug underneath him with lavender dusted through the fibers giving it a shiny look. As he approaches the golden desk in front of him, the executors head snaps up from his console then looks back down as if just registering who was approaching.

"Good you have arrived" the console dies, and a keyboard slides back into his desk as the executor looks back up at Zathuris.

"I doubt I had much choice." the Executor glares at him.

"I understand there is some... Tension between our two people." Zathuris anger wells up inside him.

"You cast us out as outcasts, heathens... yet you came crawling back to us, begging for our help, then our homes! Some is an understatement." his shoulders lower as he relaxes.

"I am sorry. What is it you needed Executor?" The blaze in Zathuris heart sizzles down to hot embers.

"I fear with your battle with the leviathan, you failed to notice the other life forms that came into this battle..."

"There were only us and the Zerg." snaps Zathuris, leaving the Executor to glare at him once more, only this time a warming sensation enveloped his head, realizing what that was he quickly shut up.

"There were humans amidst the battle, they didn't fight they only came to take something" He pauses for a moment to let Zathuris figure it out, but after a long moment of silence he frowns "Did you not go back to check on your fallen brethren you fool!" Zathuris Anger grabs hold again, and looks at him as if the Executor had committed him to heresy.

"I was helping repair, and cleanup. I was going to get them as your messenger found me!" He physically cools off but his anger still apparent. the Executor looks down.

"Im sorry, I did not mean to imply that you didn't care, that is obvious. The humans took the bodies of your brothers, i don't know why though." Zathuris shifts uncomfortably. "But for whatever reason it can't be good, beyond that they deserve the funeral all protoss are entitled. Go, find their vessels and destroy them in flame, along with the building that inhabit them." Zathuris nods and bows as he leaves the room his thoughts swarm like bees in a nest, and the news struck the nest.

Chapter 4

After a few hours of walking Zathuris finally comes across the Terran base in a crater, he looks up at the twilight sun and feels the power within him surge across his body, the emerald glow of his warp blade only shining for a few seconds until it is snuffed out by his invisibility, he slowly slides down the wall of the crater careful not to make too much sound or stir up too much dust. He finally slides to a stop at the base of the crater just outside a Terran bunker he Sees mounted C-14 rifles at the opening in the bunker, he listens close but hears nothing he creeps around to the door of the bunker careful to keep his distance from the windows but also not to get within range of the sensory tower, finally he reaches the entrance of the bunker, he looks inside, all that's there are a few marines dressed in their typical powered armour suits, and playing poker, a console of some sort and concrete walls. He looks up at the sky taking one last look at the violet beauty then walks in still stealth, he walks over to the one in the back watching the window and in one swift move impales him watching the crimson red flow from the end of his blade, the other two marines immediately stand up in horror, but their expressions turn to anger when Zathuris slowly drops the cloak, the emerald green of his warp blade fills the room, the first marine opens his mouth to say something but a flash goes past his face and his head from the mouth up slides off, followed by the rest of the body slumping to the ground, the last one dives to the side for the rifle but is stabbed mid jump, the momentum still carrying him through the air and the blade, nearly cutting him in half. he waits a few minutes for the next group of marines to arrive, he kills them quickly and heads deeper into the city.

Diving and jumping between alleys and streets, avoiding patrols and sensory towers, he slowly dips into thought as he is traveling. _Why do the Terran's want our brethren? What kind of defecation have they performed on our brothers? _Suddenly an alarm sounds he looks up immediately seeing that in his thoughts he strayed to close to an sensory tower, he looks around hearing the shuffling of boots getting to him quickly. He bursts out of the alley diving through a group of surprised Terran's at a full sprint, he dives back into another alley way as a group of marines turn around the corner and spray an entire clip into the street, suddenly a new alarm goes off, he looks around to see he was nowhere near any other towers then he notices that the supply depots he was using as cover were slowly descending into the ground. He looks up to the violet sky one more time and dives out of the alleyway and into the other one across the street, he hears the crack of a bullet hitting the wall behind him, another shot rings just in front of him from the nearby ghosts, slowly the supply depots are going down, 5 feet, 4 feet, he dives into another street heading for another alleyway but is blocked off, he jumps and slides across the building next to them, they shoot wildly unable to find where he was, a few bullets catches his cloak, he lands with a dust cloud, another ghost shot cutting the cloud in half, soon he Sees the science vessel, his zeal renewed he drops his cloaking so he can go faster, a group of marines stand in front of him he jumps toward them as they start shooting, his shield keeps the bullets at bay, he reaches the group and twirls leaving a bright green swirl flying through the dark air, followed by the rose of blood from the marines, they all fall over, some clutching at stubs where their legs or arms where at others just fall to the ground dead_ Closer, CLOSER._ Finally he gets within 20 yards of the science vessel, suddenly he hears the thudding of machinery just then three Thor's surround the science vessel, he dives behind the nearest building, avoiding the Thor's they didn't seem to notice. He pokes his head around the building, the Thor's hadn't moved an inch, obviously waiting for him, he finds a gap in between the Thor's and a window being in the spot, he stands in the middle of the alley way and grabs the attention of one of the Thor's then the next, soon he had them all moving closer to him the gap getting smaller and smaller, he prepares himself, the first Thor fires a missile barrage in the area he was in, he watches each missile, as they crash and explode around him, his shield absorbing the damage, then he feels his shield drop, suddenly out of the dust and fire comes another rocket straight at him, closing the distance quickly, 10 yards 5 yards, he sends a pulse of psionic force through his hands and to the ground propelling him forward just before the rocket hit the ground, the explosion of the rocket send him hurtling out of the dust and debris like a missile, he twists and bends to the point of just barely fitting through the gap between the Thors and lands into the window of the science vessel crashing onto a hardwood floor of an empty room.

Dazed he looks around, the dust filling his lungs, the only light is the twilight coming through the broken window, he stands with the sound of crunching glass under his feet. after a minute to clear his head he finds a door and sends a wave of energy through his arm summoning the warp blade to fill the room with the bright jade glow, he goes through the door into a metallic hallway with wooden doors lining it, he turns left and follows that side of the hallway after a minute of walking he comes to the end of the hallway to a metal door with a scanner to the side, he uses the warp blade and cuts his way through the door, on the other side there numberless amounts of consoles everywhere with different colored pictures and words, and panicking humans, they stare in disbelief, slowly they start to get their nerve and a few of them pull out their side arms, before the first shot is fired he acts.

It had only taken a few seconds, but it felt like hours, dead humans scattered everywhere missing life and limb, a few still alive but clutching at the stubs of where their limbs would be, others in a corner weeping or babbling hysterically. He hadn't even realized much of what he did, he remembered the whirlwind of green, and screams of agony as he sent someone through the metal wall, but it all seemed as if it was just a dream to him, he looks around and goes up to a console, the biggest in the room, it glowing a brilliant blue, with the touch keys glowing amber. He touches the panel and it flares to life bring him to a login screen, he looks over to the chief researcher and takes his name card on it is a code, he enters the name and code, the screen flashes green, and takes him to a directory, he taps the search tab and puts in protoss research, it comes up with ten pages, he scrolls through and sees weaknesses, breeding, technology, finally he comes up on the "Protoss Test Subject Bodies". He selects the link and the screen turns white with research notes and a few pictures, he reads among the notes to discover what they were doing, but can't decipher most of it, he scrolls to the bottom and hits delete, the entire page vanishes and returns to the directory page, he backs out to console commands and tells it to open all doors, the metallic _chink_ of doors unlocking rings through the entire room, he looks up at the screen then thrusts the blade into it easily sending it through, the console below starts dimming then completely turns black, he steps away and looks through a window next to the door nearest to the console, the sterile light in the room illuminates the atrocities on the bodies, all of them split open down the chest with their insides easily viewable from the window, on a few there intestines draped from the body to the table and cut open. He stumbles backwards feeling anxious he takes out the explosive, and takes the warp blade and plunges it into the glass, melting a hole around it, he arms the bomb and tosses it in, he walks away and out of the room and the bomb goes off, engulfing the entire room including the console room, in a Sapphire blue flame, the site of his brethren like that haunting his thoughts. A few minutes of pass as he tries to navigate the labyrinth of hallways in the science facility, finally he comes up to an big wooden door when alarms start going off he looks around for any trip wires but finds none, finally a voice sends a warning the intercoms.

"Warning nuclear launch detected in this vicinity." the message loops a few more times then goes back to the siren, he looks back at the door and slams himself against it to open it but it doesn't budge, he plunges the warp blade into the door and sends pulse after pulse of energy through to the weapon, making it glow bright and hotter, in a few seconds the spot he stabbed into had started to crumble he sends a few more pulses through the warp blade and a hole big enough to fit through forms, he goes through carefully not to touch the embers on the side, he goes out back into the twilight dusk leaving the siren of the nuke behind, he looks up to the sky to see the missile racing across the sky, he sprints away from the site, sending psionic energy from his body to propel himself forward, weaving in-between buildings and scared terrans alike, he comes to a sliding halt, kicking up a bunch of dirt, and turns around to see the missile almost there, he watches it, 3,2,1, there's a flash and followed by giant boom he sees in the distance a mushroom cloud of reds and oranges where the science vessel was, suddenly he is almost blasted off his feet by the wave of air following the nuke, he turns and uses the jet of air and propels himself further away and passed the boundaries of the Terran base, he looks back and sees the smoke of the explosion still taking the mushroom look even though winds had distorted the base of the cloud, most of the building within a half mile radius destroyed or on fire nearing destroyed, and everything past that getting an even coat of irradiated ash. He looks back at the abyssal sky, walks over to a tree, sits down and mourns.

Chapter 5

He awakens to the sound of metal boots thrashing around in hard soil, slowly the noise gets louder and louder, he jumps up while cloaking and activating his warp blade, the green glow only present for a few seconds, but long enough for the Terrans to notice.

" Hey did you see that" he nudges the marine next to him.

" Ya let's go check it out."

Slowly Zathuris can hear their voices getting louder, then another sound appears, he looks past the tree to see a portable science vessel following them, he looks around for an idea, he look up to the tree then to the path there taking, he goes around the side of the tree and concentrates on staying from within the range of it sensors, he sits and waits. After a few minute they get closer and closer,10 yards, 5 yards,2 yards suddenly the science vessel sets off an alarm, Zathuris drops his cloaking and sends a massive wave of energy through his arm to his warp blade, it roars to life with an intense heat, almost hot enough to burn him, and cuts at the tree, it only takes a few cuts and the tree tumbles on top of the science vessel destroying it and crushing two other marines the others take cover behind the trees across from him as he cloaks himself again and dives to the side as soon as one of the marines sends a burst his direction, most miss by he feels two bullets bounce off of his shield, confused and afraid the marines begin looking everywhere, up, down, left, right then repeat, he walks up behind a marine, then hears a metallic thump behind him and an machine like hiss, right as he turns around he sees an Terran firebat ten yards behind him, he sees the glow forming on the inside of the barrel and ducks just in time to avoid the liquid fire and watch as the marine in front of him engulfed in flames, he falls to the ground screaming and clawing at the fires along his body, then just silence, but not for long as the thumping of heavy footsteps and more fiery screams fill the air the putrid smell of burning flesh fills the air and his nostrils, he gets up and retreat to the edge of the skirmish, confused.

"Why are they attacking each other?"

He looks at the firebats and notices raynor's raiders symbol he figures they must be doing a raid on the base, he decides to head to the direction they're coming from, in hope of finding an encampment of there's. A few minutes pass and slowly the sounds of screams and fire die down to echoes in the distance, finally he stumbles across the camp, nothing more than a few simple building, a command center in the middle, with supply depot surrounding the camp, 2 barracks sitting just outside of the ring of depots, he walks to the border and cloaks himself, he gets to the ring of supply depots and squeezes through the gap in between, he walk to the entrance of the command center and waits for someone to leave and he slips in just before the door closes, he travels through the halls following the more important looking people until he finally he reaches raynor's office, slips in on him and his lieutenant discussing the battle.

"Jim, the battle is going better then expected, the firebats have almost finished clearing out the grove, and scouts report that the flash was probably a malfunctioning nuke going off, there's reports of irradiated ash cloud heading our way to so I think we need to set up the barrier."

"Very good, keep me posted, dismissed." as the lieutenant walks out of the room a chill is sent down Zathuris spine as Jim looks straight at him, then looks down at the paperwork on his desk. "Didn't your mother ever tell you it's not nice to eavesdrop" Zathuris nearly jumps."And I assume you're the one that caused all the hubbub over in that confederate base?" Zathuris drops the cloaking and steps forward

"How?" and stops the flow of energy to to his warp blade. Jim reached around behind him and taps a panel behind him, the panel starts getting a more pronounced crevice around, slowly the panel starts to get a red ring around it, then it pops open and he pulls it out and motions for Zathuris to step forward. "this my own creation, a state of the art scanner..." he taps the panel on the top and a holographic projection of the base appears, "it can see anything that comes within a square mile of here, cloaked or burrowed." he taps at the hologram and it zooms to the room they are in it show two dots, one red and one blue. " the red one is me it shows my bloods color and vital signs, the blue is yours according to your blood color, Zerg would appear green but that's because their blood is the same as ours," suddenly another two dots appear on the screen outside the door, "here, get cloaked and go to the corner I don't think any of my men would... Appreciate having to know they let something pass them by" with that Zathuris backs into the corner and cloaks, while Jim presses a button and sends the panel back into the wall like nothing was there. He taps another button and the door opens, two marines walk in.

" sir the scanner shows something in here with you, are you alright?"

"Well I don't have my gun out and pointed at something do I? And I'm not fighting or dead, or there's no dead bodies in here is there? So I would say I'm ok."

the marine takes a step back, " sorry sir, I guess it must have been a glitch, we shall go fix it immediately." they walk out of the room like children who had been scolded.

" so why are you here, dark Templar." he turns to him with his eyebrow cocked slightly.

"I was sent here by the Executor, to destroy the bodies of my fallen comrades that had been taken by the confederacy for their research experiments and the research following it." he uncloaks again.

"hmm well you sure made my day a hell of a lot easier, I mean damn, you made them nuke themselves." he starts laughing, and the way Jim made it sound made Zathuris also start to laugh. "So what's your name?"

"Zathuris Ast' teleran, champion of the fall of Aiur" Jim snickers

" That's not a title I would want to hold over my head but hey, as long as your boats afloat." Zathuris looks at him questioningly.

"My boat isn't afloat, I don't have a boat?"

"Don't sweat it, it was a little Terran humor, anyway you told me yours I'll tell you mine, I came here because I heard that this was where the last of the Protoss fled to, but I also knew the confederation was going to be here, so I decided to help them out, but it looks like you guys got it all under control." he smirks.

"yes, it wasn't until they took the bodies of my brethren that we realized they were even here."

"well before you go you should know that they don't keep their research in one place, by now they've got it back to Tarsonis, but I've got a plan, if your interested."

" I am"

"good, now this will have to be done at a different confederate base due to their little nuke problem, luckily. I was going there next, you need to get into their science facility and hack into their computers and insert this virus," he hands him a chip "This will go through their entire network and corrupt, delete, and overall commit mass mayhem on all their research, I will send an escort of ghosts with you, they will lead you there then you guide them in and they will do the hacking." he taps a button on the console in front of him and speaks into it "G-team report to my office immediately." he turns back towards Zathuris "Wait here a minute they'll be here momentarily."

A few minutes pass and 4 ghosts walk into the room, they acknowledge Zathuris standing in the corner.

" reporting sir, sergeant Theresa pa..." Jim holds up a hand to cut her off.

" let's not ruin this special moment with formalities."

"ok? What did you need sir?"

"you guys are going to show him," he points to Zathuris, "the neighborhood, you know, show him the main confederate base, say hi, hack their computer and insert the virus, oh and get him something nice from the armory."

She looks over at Zathuris suspiciously. "How do we know we can trust him?"

"Well for one he hasn't tried to kill me yet, or you guys for that matter, and he's the one to thank for the pandemonium in sector 4."

"but that doesn't mean tha-"

his tone turns cold enough to freeze water "you will lead him there you will go in there and you will hack that console to deliver the virus, do I make myself clear?"

"crystal, sir"

"he will meet you out in front of the command post in a few minutes I need to talk to him, dismissed," they all salute, turn and leave. "Theresa is a good soldier she just isn't trustworthy of Protoss, they destroyed her home in the Mar Sara colonies after the Zerg attacked, but enough reminiscing on the history, go meet them down there, she won't bite unless asked to."

Zathuris looks down to the chip then back to Jim "thank you" walks out of the room and heads to the ghosts outside.

"well thank you for giving me the reason and the means to do this." Jim goes back to his work.

He walks outside to see the four ghosts wandering about waiting, a few engineers and marine stunned to see a Protoss in the heart of their base.

" Sir, please follow me" he nods and they lead him to the armory, they get there and enter the armory, immediately the smell of dust and mildew fill his nostrils, the room is cold as they lead him deeper into the armory to the very back, they attempt to open a crate but are unable to due to the rusted nails "sir if you wouldn't mind," Zathuris nods and concentrated his energy into a single powerful stream of green fire, quickly cutting thought the nails, after he is done they throw the crate open and pull out five sets of ghosts masks, they throw one to him.

"what is this for?"

"So you can see us when we cloak at the base"

"I do not require this to see you, even when cloaked, it still leaves an outline that I can see."

"oh ya care to test that"

"Very well, if I must." the ghost walks backwards into the darkness and pulls out his knife, the ring fills the room but slowly dies down, Zathuris looks around a little and listens, he can hear the heartbeat of the man come at him faster and faster, he sends out a wave of psionic energy as an echo to see him, he dodges just in time to miss the knife he rears back and grabs the humans hand twists it and throws him over and behind a box knocking the knife away.

He can hear the human get back to his feet, he staggers a little but charges Zathuris again, this time he swings at him, a sudden crack is heard and the room is filled with a blue glow for a second then dissipates, after he uncloaks he looks down at his hand, the middle finger won't unfold he pulls it open gently, and grunts in pain.

"my shield has a repulsion property to it, I've never had a human attempt to punch me before..." he holds out his hand, "trust me." the ghost holds out his hand and Zathuris grabs it he takes the finger and pulls, the finger pops and the human yelps. "There, it was only jammed."

the ghost glares at him."thanks." he shakes his hand then pumps it to see if he has control over the finger. They leave the building with the equipment in hand and head out to the Terran base.

Chapter 6

A few hours pass and they begin to hear the sounds of construction and marching as patrols of marines complemented with a third the number firebats. they walk through the edge of the forest and look over the base, large by terran standards barracks dotted along the perimeter with missile towers and bunkers ring around the base.

"How are we going to get through that sir" they sit for a few minutes watching and thinking suddenly Theresa snaps.

"i've got it, I have been watching the patrols, every 5 minutes the patrols check inside the missile towers for something, if we waited until only the back firebat was in view we could shoot the tank and blow it up."

"but we need in quietly, they will now they're under attack" Theresa frowns, then looks up at the clouds, suddenly a flash of violet and the roll of thunder sounds and Theresa looks back at Zathuris and grins.

"No one will know the difference of an explosion by a gunshot or by static igniting the fuel, especially when hidden in a thunderstorm" She gets into a prone position and takes aim, the flash of violet goes off as the last firebat steps through the doorway. 1,2,3 _Crack_. A flame spurts from the back of the firebat and before he realizes it the entire tower erupts in flame and debris, they quickly sprint forward to the tower before the other patrols can make it, another explosion knocks them off their feet, all except for one get back up, theresa looks over and sees a shard of metal sticking out of his eye.

"Dammit, the mission has barely started and we already lost one."

"Come on, live so that he may be mourned." They grab his body and throw it into the hottest part of the fire and continue forward.

"Damn lightning storms, that's the third time this month." the marine next to him just shrugs, they dig through the wreckage after the rain had stopped the flames.

"Oi over here, this ain't one of our ghosts." the flip him over and see a melted emblem of Raynor's Raiders on his back. "oh well, he must have been a scout." they continue rummaging through until they come up on the firebats fuel tanks, they think nothing about it until they are unable to find any others.

"hey i thought that the canisters were obliterated if they blew up from the inside, this on has a hole as if... shot." they look at one another and immediately run for the next missile tower.

As they make their way through the base, they duck in and out of alleys. They are startled when a siren roars to life between the crashes of lightning, they quicken their pace and as they round a corner they almost run into a patrol of marines that were scattered.

After a few minutes of walking they finally reach their destination, a giant building with windows along it in rows, the building itself looks like a giant ovulated bubble, capped with a green roof that points at the top, they take a few steps forward only to be stopped by four helions in their way, along with a sensor tower next to the science lab.

"What do we do?" asks one of the ghosts as everyone except for Zathuris turns their head to theresa.

"Who has the armour piercing rounds?" She looks around as everyone shrugs and hisses at them "You idiots, what did i tell you not to forget? but you still did..." Zathuris snaps his hand across her mouth to silence her, then holds a finger to his own to shush her, then moves his hand, he can't help but smirk at the human's reaction of her scowl towards him, but he points out towards the Helions that were blocking them, suddenly there engines roar to life and they move away in different directions. They all look at eachother and make a break for it, when they reach the halfway point they hear a muffled pump sound, and quickly look around, then the world around them explode in a flash of light and deafness, they all fall to the ground clutching their ears and rolling, when they all recover they find that they are surrounded by marines, all with guns pointed straight at them, then another _Pump_ and a gas swirls around them, enveloping them in a black abyss of their own mind.

A metal cup flys across the room and clatters against the wall then the floor."Dammit, what happened to watching them?"

"I'm sorry, there was nothing we could do, we could see we just couldn't reach there" Jim rolls his fingers on his desk pondering what his next move should be, then just droops his head and sighs.

"There isn't much we can do now, nothing short of an army we don't have will get them out of there. Dammit" he bangs his fist on the desk again for emphasis causing the stuff on it to rattle and nearly topple over.

Chapter 7

Zathuris awakens out of his stupor and looks around, but he is still dizzy, all he notices is the one light above him the blank red walls and him being tied down. a man walks out of the corner, with an apron the same color as the walls, in an echoey voice he talks.

"zo finally you awake, zeres a f..." he drifts back into his own mind not evening caring what the man says when a sharp sting to his face snaps him out of it and his warrior senses begin to kick in, he struggles against the bonds on his hands and feet but can't get loose, he looks around back at the walls and sees that what he thought originally was red paint, was blood splattered on the walls and on the humans apron. A hand closes around his chin and forces his head up to stare at the human in the eyes. They remind him of ice.

"v'why are you here?" the human stares at him for a second waiting for an answer but gets none, impatient, he asks again more forcefully, but to no avail."Fine, we can play zhis game" Zathuris notices an accent to the human's voice before his thoughts are interrupted by another slap this time by a leather glove, he feels warm blood seeping into his mouth.

"I v'will ask once more, v'why are you here" the only response he gets is being spit at, his face scrunches up in disgust and turns away to wipe it off, when he turns around his face is so red that it could have boiled off the saliva, suddenly he straps on a mask then the room begins to git a glare as his vision once again returns to that abyssal state.

Theresa blinks the sleep out of her eyes as she looks around the blank empty room, she recalls the blinding flash then the guns pointed at them and realized their folly, they laid a perfect trap for them._ Dammit, this would never had happened with that damn alien._ she looks down and sees they took her armour but not the under clothing, she wiggles her toe around and nudges the eight inch blade out of her boot, it slides out and clatters on the floor, she yips and covers it with her leg, as her eyes dart around the room for any sign that the guards heard her, when she is comfortable to the knowledge that they didn't she takes up the knife and begins cutting the bonds when she is done the bonds fall to the ground silently, she gets up and stretches the numbness out of her limbs and begins finding the door, when she finds a crack in the wall she silently slides the knife into the crack and twists it, suddenly the door slides up and a marine's body falls through the doorway. at the sight of the guard she instinctively threw up her knife in defence, but the body just falls to the ground, dead.

Theresa steps through the doorway into the stone hallway, lights dot the hallway every two rooms, as she goes down the hallway the smell of death increases so when she finally reaches the main level she isn't surprised to see the entire mess hall a literal mess, with body parts and blood spread out everywhere, tables overturned, and food everywhere._Did the zerg attack while I was asleep? _She starts forward and her answer appears when she reaches the corner.

"Wake up you lazy creature" a sudden sting knocks Zathuris out of his dreams once more. "Now if i don't get my anzerz zhen I v'will leave you to ze ozer zcientist, zey are eager, after you torched zier last facility and zpecimens, to get ahold of you. Now v'why are you here." after a moment of silence he raises his gloved hand and starts forward like a bullet but is stopped instantly, the man's face contorted in anger once more as he is unable to move his hand, then jumps back in fear as he sees Zathuris eye take on the color of blood. He reaches for a gask mask. "Ze gas, now you foolz!" but before the gas even begins seeping in Zathuris restraints disintegrate around his arms and quickly his ankles, then he is up in a flash with the humans throat between his hand, he puts more and more pressure until finally he hears the crack of his neck and the humans body goes limp. He throws the body off to the side, through the one way window. When he jumps through the gas starts wafting over the edges of the window as that room and the one he is in starts filling in, he looks down at the two humans that were huddling in a corner, the gas had already gotten to them and killed them. He looks around once more and scans over his equipment, its all unharmed, he grabs it and goes out into the hallway stone hallway, doors line the hallway and lamps every other door, a guard sees him walk out and aims to shoot but a psionic blast catches him and he flies back and is impaled by a lamp and slides down and gets stuck leaning against the door, but quite dead.

He finally reaches the main level and goes through the first door he finds, he stumbles into a room with a score or more of marines, unarmoured and unarmed. At first they don't notice him but in a few seconds the entire room was quiet and staring at him, he sends a pulse of energy through to his blade and it roars to life in an ruby color, brighter than the rest of the lights, enveloping the room in an peircing red hue. The room fills with roses of light, and murals of blood splatter as Zathuris sets off to be Revenge incarnate.

Theresa is barely able to jump back in time as an arc of blood red energy flashes in front of her, but she is quickly backed up against the wall after a series of slashes and thrusts, she rolls out of the way as the assailant thrusts once more, straight into the wall, when she recovers she gets a chance to see who it is, she shudders when she sees the look of hate and pain in Zathuris face, then he slashes again, then quickly reverses causing her to jump back twice more, she uses the moment to sprint for the mess hall, she burst through the door and is almost dropped by the stench but she manages to hide behind a table near the back, she hears the hissing of tables melting in half.

_Kill the humans. Avenge. Kill the humans. Avenge._ The only thought that pulses through Zathuris mind, he hears footsteps and soon he is slashing at another human, another human to help avenge, soon he is within the room before._ Where did the human go?Kill the human. Avenge._ He slashes at a table it clangs on the ground as the cut bubbles and melts, he reaches out to the other row of tables and sends a pulse of psionic energy forcing all the tables to fly backward into the wall. "Aahh" His head snaps to the direction of the sound behind the tables he launched, the pulsing in his head slowly gets faster as he approaches the human female, clutching her leg, his blade goes up into the air, his head throbbing _Kill the human. Avenge. _Suddenly there is a squeak in the back of his mind, he digs through it to see what it is. _Theresa, friend...Theresa, friend!_ A shock in his mind, and the blast of a broken table leg from behind knocks him out.

When he wakes up he is tied to a tree on the outskirts of the confederate city, Theresa is hovering over him with a side arm pointed at him, and another ghost off to the side acting as watch.

"Are you, you?" Theresa narrows her eyes and adjust the sights, he assumes directly between his eyes.

"What do you mean am I myself, of course i'm myself" Theresa lowers her weapon as she notices his eyes are back to normal.

"So, you don't remember?"

"Remember wh..." As if on cue the memories come flooding into his head, a pain so overwhelming it almost knocks him out, and a fear of what happened.

"What's happening?" She can do nothing but watch as he writhes in pain, then he just stops and looks up at her.

"I'm sorry" She turns her head trying to understand, but she can't figure out why she feels there was a deeper meaning to that.

Chapter 8

After a day of slow walking, they get near Jim's base, but they notice a smell lingering through the air and plumes of smoke billowing over the ridge ahead of them, Zathuris cloaks and looks to the twilight sky and prays against his theory, as he runs ahead over the ridge his fear is confirmed, the entire base is destroyed, the outer ring of supply depots are either in pieces or burning, but none of them are whole, the legs to a barracks collapsed and half of the barracks is leaning over and crushed by chunks from the other barracks. As he scans the wreckage he takes note of the dead zerg everywhere, suddenly the silence is broken by a yell, and a sob. Zathuris looks over to see theresa on the ground grabbing at the black grass and pulling it up in chunks and slamming it down.

After she calms down they make their way to the base, as they near the smell of decay assaults their nostrils, they walk past hacked off parts and whole dead bodies alike, whether by claw or bullet. they hear an squealing off to the side and walk towards it cautiously, they walk around a corner and hide behind a pile of rubble as an zerg drone hovers over to a small crystal growth and collects it, scraping claws against it then eating it. It seems to burp as Theresa stands up and pulls out her hand gun and walks towards it, it notices and panics, it looks around for a place to run but finds none, knowing that it has no alternative it starts hissing at her, she doesn't even flinch as it fires an acidic spine towards her but goes harmlessly wide, at bats at her with large claws but she jumps back in time and the claws slam into the side of a ruined building causing it to collapse on its claws, pinning it. She walks up three feet away from it and adjust her sights on its eyes, she notices something in its eyes, fear, she smiles as she pulls the trigger, then again and again until all that's left is the ticking of an empty clip and her growling as she continues ticking until the other ghost walks up to her and grabs her hand and the gun, then she collapses again in sobs, as the drone stops twitching and finally dies.

Zathuris stands and turns towards Theresa and the other ghost "Is there someplace the survivors would have gone?"

The other ghost answers as Theresa continues sobbing "Yes, there is an outpost about two clicks out, we can get there before sundown." Zathuris nods as the other ghost helps Theresa up.

"I've never thought to ask but, what is your name?" The other ghost looks at him, a little confused

"What could it matter now?"

"I don't believe we will be parting ways for awhile." Theresa gets back on her feet and with the help of the other ghost starts walking forward with her, but he looks up at Zathuris.

"Mar"

Throughout their walk Mars had explained their past and how when the Zerg had attacked the planet Mar Sara, and how their sister had been killed by the zergs and their parents had been stuck at their home in Mar Sara's capitol when the Protoss bombed the planet a few days later. Theresa turned her head away to hide the tears as he was telling the story. After a few hours they finally arrive at the outpost which was much more active than usual. They approach slowly and notice that the population had nearly doubled with scientists and marines scrambling everywhere.

They walk through the outpost with barely a look their way, even the sight of an Dark Templar wasn't enough to pull their gaze, the solemn feel of loss was thick in the air. They approach The command center and follow the hallways up to the commanders chamber, the door slides open and they walk in, only to be greeted by a frightened scientist and a cup clattering against the wall.

"HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!" Jim slams his fist down on the table sending the stuff on the edge to the ground and everything else topples around, Jim looks up and immediately brightens at the sight of the three walking in, he slides his hair back into place with his hand and walks forward. "Thank god you guys are alright."

"What happened? How did they get us?" Jims head lowers to his pocket and and pulls out a small chip. "That isn't..." Theresa's eyes widen in horror. "Who, ho..."

"I don't know, but just before the attack a package was delivered and this was in it, when I find out who it is i'll..." Jim continues rambling on in anger but Zathuris interrupts.

"What is it." They all turn to him, and Jim tosses him the chip.

"Basically, this chip is what sent the signal for the zergs, without it the automatic alarms wouldn't go off, and the sensors wouldn't show them, they could sit at our front door without us knowing it. So is it done?" the room grows a little colder and a flash of pain crosses Zathuris face. "What happened?" They take a few minutes to explain what happened to Jim, afterwards they took the night to sleep, and rest up.

Slowly Zathuris slips into a deep sleep and dreams, he tosses and turns through his bunk has he dreams of the explosion of the Citadel, and the Leviathan, and of the massacre at the base. He jumps up as he awakes in a cold sweat, and goes for a walk. He walks for twenty minutes until he encounters Jim, he turns towards him a little surprised.

"Couldn't sleep?" Zathuris nods. "Neither can I, this planets sun keeps my schedule in a flurry." Jim shifts uncomfortably and changes the conversation. "So was the mission that bad off? i can't get the other two to explain what happened." Zathuris turns towards him and sits down on a rock, Jim does the same as Zathuris recalls the event, Jim sits patiently and listens, taking in every word. Finally Zathuris finishes his story and stands up to face the rising amethyst sun.

"I must return to my people this day. I must tell my Executor that i have completed what i was tasked to do." Jim nods, Zathuris turns to walk away but Jim stops him.

"Wait take Theresa and Mars with you, they don't need to be cooped up in this place. And try to show Theresa that she doesn't need to hate or fear the protoss." Zathuris ponders it for a long second, then nods.

"You want me to go WHERE!" Jim ducks as an pillow is thrown through the air and thumps on the wall then the floor.

"You need to learn to respect the protoss, they weren't the reason for your pain." He dodges another pillow followed by a cup that clatters against a table, he looks over to Mar who is just sitting and chuckling at his sister's display of anger, she goes to grab a chair to throw but Mar stands up and grabs right as Jim dove to the ground to get out of the way.

"You know he is right, that's why we joined him in the first place, to fight against the confederate." She slides to the ground in exhaustion and surrenders. "Tell him we'll be ready in a few minutes to go." Jim nods and walks out of the room, as he leaves he turns to Mar and nods a thank you to him.

"Why, bother, why does he want us to go there." Mar shakes his head.

"i don't know"

Chapter 9

They set out a few minutes later and had traveled the vast twilight wastes, but even though the sun was dark it was burning hotter than most. They reached the base in two days of slow walking. As they approach many protoss eyes fall upon the humans. All in blame. Zathuris walks out to an outcropping above most of the Protoss people.

"Let it be know that I Zathuris Ast' Teleran, claim these humans to be under my protection on pain of death." Theresa scowls at him.

"You didn't say we were in danger of being flayed alive, on whim."

"You didn't ask." He grins smugly as Theresa's face starts to turn an even brighter shade of red, in anger "The only reason i needed to do that was because... they know it was a couple of ghosts that took the bodies of my brethren, in Protoss society, that is an heinous crime, but they don't know the specifics." her anger seems to lighten up but she keeps her hand on her side arm the entire trip to the Nexus.

When they arrive they are greeted by a couple of Citadel High Zealots, when they see the humans approach they activate their weapons, spurring to life an amethyst glow from their arms and crossing them over the entrance way.

"Terrans are not allowed, they must stay here." Zathuris turns to nod but Theresa puts a hand up to silence him, she waves him on as they find a couple of comfy enough rocks to sit on.

He continues in alone through the golden hallways. He notices that the hallways had changed. One of the main defences of a Nexus is the shifting hallways to confuse attackers and keep the path to the Executor all but impassable. He stands and watches the purple flame dance around for a minute then notices the arrow inside pointing the way, it takes a few minutes for him to navigate the new path to have to take but he reaches it and is greeted by the Executor standing outside his office, as he approaches he senses a wave of warmth pass over him.

"Ahh, it is good to see you are back, which must mean you were successful in the task I gave." He asks it more as a question than a statement.

"I'm afraid we failed" The warmth is replaced by biting cold.

"We?" The executor reaches out mentally to everyone who has knowledge of his mission but is only able to find the humans. "The humans... they helped you?"

"Yes, without them i wouldn't have known where the information of our brethren they had went to..." He continues on to explain everything that had happened, but he decides to leave out the prison incident. When Zathuris finishes the Executor walks back into his office and falls into his chair to absorb the information he was just given, Zathuris follows him in.

"This research that you speak of, do you know what it is for?" Zathuris shakes his head.

"A Lot of diffrent thing, weaknesses, strengths, abilities, diseases, even our physiology." The Executor nods.

"Then I have another mission for you, we have just discovered another planet not to far away from here that houses the humans research information until it can be transferred to their home planet. We have a chance to destroy that research before it reaches them by destroying the base, I will send you with two Carriers, go into there and destroy the research then destroy the planet once you're off of it."

"I will do as you command" He kneels down before the Executor and stands to leave.

"Oh, and do not fail me again Dark Templar, you are too special for me to have to replace."

Zathuris nods and leaves going out the same amber hallways that he took earlier, when he exits the Nexus he sees the two terrans yelling at the Zealots and then returning insults in equal voice, he notices it starts drawing an angry mob, but neither group seems oblivious to the crowd. He walks towards the Zealots and behind the Terrans, they back off and lower their heads knowing they had overstepped their boundaries and the mob dispersed back into their daily routines, the humans don't even notice the figure looming behind them.

"I have you under my protection, that doesn't mean that it's alright to go and pick fights."

Theresa nearly jumps out of her skin then grins at Zathuris, but he doesn't return the grin, just a continued scowl. She realizes for the first time how imposing he is. Standing at eight feet and powerfully built he is even bigger than the average protoss.

"He had it coming to him anyway, so what's happening now?" Zathuris turns towards Mar and waves for them to follow him, they take step behind him as he begins to explain the plan. When he finishes up they finally reach the fleet beacon building, the Giant sphere of khaydarin crystal slowly rotates on the axis like a planet, he notices the four clamps on the side of it are singed. They walk in and follow the platforms until they reach Teleporter.

"Have either of you teleported or ridden on a protoss carrier?" They both look at eachother and shake their heads, a little confused they step onto the platform that Zathuris is on, suddenly it begins glowing a Twilight color but gradually it starts getting more and more brighter, soon it's almost blinding, then they feel a sensation of floating, almost like there in an elevator but more subtle and more... comfortable. When the feeling and the light dissipates Theresa and Mar look around to see more than their eyes can take in. The teleporters go to the main level of a carrier as a default, as they step through they see a balcony with no railing but no way to fall, across the gap is several dozen levels with scores of protoss among them, blue consoles floating everywhere, giving the golden interior a sapphire glow. When they finally snap out of it Theresa turns towards Zathuris with a childlike glint in her eye, she immediately notices and snaps her head away as she starts turning red.

"You two are free to roam about, just don't start a fight..." He reaches up and taps a console, a bunch of symbols appear on it then he taps it again and it goes blank. "This will guide you where you want, and will help you with communication between you and the inhabitants here." he passes them the console and it lights up with a series of greetings and explanations, before they can even ask how to use it Zathuris is gone.

"Stupid creatures, they think they are the top of the universe." He turns a scarred head towards his partner and nods. "Get ready, soon they will die and the Honoured one will be none the wiser." With that they meld into the shadows with hate in their hearts and death in their intent.

Chapter 10

"Shipmaster" Zathuris nods, the shipmaster turns to regard him but his eyes widen as soon as he realizes who it is, he immediately shoots straight out of his seat and kneels down before Zathuris, sending the console in front of him spinning on its axis.

"Most honored and revered on deck, all bow in attendance!" His booming voice carries through the entire room and soon everyone is on the ground kneeling.

"Most honored and revered? I am no..." The shipmaster cuts him off to explain.

"The executor regretted to inform you that there wasn't any time for the coronation, but to give you the respect and authority anyway." Zathuris kneels down to tap on his shoulder to rise, slowly they all do.

"Please just treat me as you would any other guest, this is a grim mission not to be covered by honours and revelries"

"Very well" He nods in agreement.

"Are you aware of the mission at hand?"

"I have been told, we have emptied out the hangars so we may store more interceptors, we usually have around one hundred, but now we have around three hundred and twenty seven."

"Good." Zathuris turns to leave as an alarm goes off. "What does that mean?"

"Sir we have two energy signatures on the third lobby level, sensors report they are... Warp blades."

"Damn Nerazim." He quickly casts a glance of apology towards Zathuris but he just shrugs it off.

"Sir it seems there are flashes of energy going off but its not recognizable by the sensors..."

"It's the humans i brought on board...who would dare... no matter, Shipmaster where is the nearest teleporter!" The Shipmaster reaches down into his pocket and produces a small curved controller and tosses it to Zathuris.

"Its my personal teleporter, take it, it will teleport you anywhere, even where there is no teleporter." Zathuris nods and press the first button, the greenish grid zero's in on the energy signature and presses the button next to it, suddenly a column of light envelops him and he quickly gets dropped in front of a couple of surprised Dark Templars, he takes the moment to punch both of them and send them spiraling into a wall, they slide to the floor with a muffled thump but quickly get up and out of their daze bearing their warp blades aggressively.

"Stand down, these humans are under my protection."

"Traitor, consorting with humans, they defiled the bodies of our brothers and you'd keep them as pets" They start moving in closer, but are stopped by two more cracks of bullets bouncing off their shields

"We didn't do that, and we are not pets." The Dark Templars press forward with their anger renewed.

"Sir there is a third energy signature coming in front of the other two, but i don't know who it is, there is too much energy."

"What, let me see that" The Shipmaster pushes the Watcher out of his chair and watches as streams of concentrated energy go everywhere followed by trails of residual energy. He slides his finger up the screen and deactivates the energy sifter and goes to just the camera, what he sees is beyond his wildest imagination.

From the outside it looks just like a blur of white light but to the combatants within its a systematic series of thrusts and sweeps, Zathuris unable to get himself on the offensive keeps them at bay with little trouble, suddenly one jumps over him, he slashes at him but only collides with the shield but he hears a pop as the shield generator on him died, he presses on harder against the one infront of him as the one behind him charges Theresa, he swings at her but she easily crouches down, and since he was running his momentum carried him over her and into a pile of crates, he stumbles out of it with just enough time to see a golden pipe swing at him, he feels the pain of being hit for a split second before he dips into blackness.

Zathuris, not having to deal with two, put the one he is fighting on the defensive, he backs him up against the edge of the platform where everyone near can see the blinding blur of warp blades flashing, his opponent takes another step back but finds there is no step to take, knocked off balance Zathuris presses his advantage, Zathuris feigns a thrust from the left, so the opponent goes to block, but Zathuris bats away the weapon and reverses and spins around to thrust behind him, he feels the slow sinking feeling of hot energy into flesh, the smell of burning fills the air for a few seconds before Zathuris kicks him off the ledge and down into the swirling energy relays where his body is disintegrated, he turns towards his companions, Theresa looks at him with wide eyes, then he notices the sound of a neck snapping and sees Mar let go of the other one's head as it hangs limply. He walks over to them but they both point their weapons at him, he starts to speak but slowly darkness claws at him and his vision blackens as he falls to the floor, but not before he sees the amethyst glow of his warp blade.

His eyes blink open and dart around until he realizes where he is, he tries to move around but can't, as he pulls and tugs he realizes he is in gravity constraints. "Sir he is awake"

"Good, release the restraints, I don't think they will be necessary" Zathuris slowly regains control as he is lowered to the table and able to move around, when it is all done and puts him down, he sits up and looks around to see a medic, Theresa and Mar and the Shipmaster all huddling around him in a defensive position. "Just to be sure, Honored one, activate your weapon." They all tense up as he lifts his arm, he sends a weak pulse of energy that spurs his weapon active with a dull emerald, then immediately drops his arm, causing the warp blade to turn off, they all relax immediately and go to sit down in various spots. Zathuris is first to break the silence.

"What happened, I remember the fight, and something purple glowing next to me as i fell, but what knocked me out? And why were you all afraid of me?" they all look at eachother as if to ask how to answer him, Zathuris pales "it didn't happen again" Theresa stands up.

"No, well not exactly, last time your weapon was blood red, and you were angry, this time it was purple, and you were... vindictive? you weren't angry, actually you were quite calm but you fought with righteous intent." The Shipmaster stands up.

"Also you were giving more psionic energy than both those fighter combined and more, I believe that was the most energy i've ever seen in my lifetime."

Zathuris Shakes his head "I don't know what's happening..."

"Shipmaster, We have arrived." The shipmaster nods his head.

"I must go." He turns to leave as Zathuris sits up and gathers his stuff. Theresa turns towards him.

"Promise me you'll control it." He looks deep into her eyes.

"Promise me if i can't.."

"You won't" She smirks and walks out of the room, He walks over to the window and stares at the sun through the filter, he longs for the churning orb of twilight that was his home.

Chapter 11

The first sirens on battle roar to life for the units to get into place, the ship vibrates as dozens of Interceptors leave to wreak havoc on the planet down below, Zathuris, Theresa and Mar all move to the teleporter, they watch as scores of zealots and various other Protoss soldiers dart about trying to find their appointed teleporters and go to the surface for the glory of battle. When they finally reach their destination they stand in the teleporter as it begins to glow brighter and brighter, suddenly they hear an explosion and the ground rushes up to meet them, they fall ten feet but land soft enough, they look up to see the ship still intact and seemingly unharmed.

"Shipmaster what happened?" He hears nothing but a bunch of static, finally the radio crackles to life.

"It is ok, we overloaded the teleporters, we lost access to the lower level teleporters and a few of the upper ones including my personal one." Zathuris quickly explains it to his companions, and they move towards the fight.

When they arrive it's obvious the Terrans weren't prepared for this, the outpost was lined in bunkers and missile towers but most of the missile towers were already destroyed or trying to shoot the Interceptors which are specifically designed to distract anti-aircraft defenses, and the bunkers were unmanned and destroyed with ease. wave after wave of zealots rush in with Immortal bombardments to cover and devastate the Terran outpost. The battle was over in minutes with minimal loss to the Protoss forces.

After the battle Zathuris meets up with the Shipmaster to discuss the planning of the battles at hand.

"That was a swift and glorious fight, wouldn't you agree?" Zathuris nods "You seem less elated."

"I'm aware of what the humans are capable of and i know that the future battles will not be easy"

"That is why i have scouts reporting in the information on their main base as we speak." Zathuris nods again and pulls out a metallic scroll covered in gold with a sapphire gem in the middle for the button, he presses it and it unravels reflecting a blank golden shine from the sun. They wait for an hour as the drones set up their base, before long they have a Nexus and a warp gate up and running with several pylons powering point defence. Soon an Zealot runs up holding a chip, they insert it into the golden scrolls top and the blank gold starts turning a dull gray then begins glowing a rich blue as it shows the ground around them then expands out in a radius out to the Terran main base. They map shows that the base is concealed in thick forestry and the terrain around it is hilly, good for the snipers.

"First we can send in interceptors to firebomb the forest and hopefully burn them out, as the Immortals are bombarding them, we can put groups of three here, here, here, and here" He points to four taller hills around the base. "We can also have the infantry encircle the base in a loose formation as to not become victims of their tanks, while they scale the hill up to the main base they will have Nullifiers to block the fire until the Colosi can scale the hill and distract the attacks, while the Carriers move in to bombard the missile towers then the infantry will rush the base and we will have our victory" The Shipmaster looks over the plan a couple times for any flaws and finally nods in agreement.

"We will move in during the night time, by then our Fleet beacon should be constructed and i can bring in a little surprise to help us with this plan.

Chapter 12

A few hours pass and the sun finally begins its descent below the horizon, everything in the base scrambles to back up and get into formation, Theresa and Mar meet up with Zathuris as he explains the plan.

"A surprise? Where is it, we're about to move out and that surprise is-"

A sudden blast in the air cuts her off mid sentence, they all look up but see nothing, in fact a lot of nothing, slowly a quiet humming begins to make the air around them vibrate, but when they look around they see nothing, suddenly the air above them becomes distorted and warped, then is immediately replaced by a gigantic triangular sphere outlined in gold with glowing blue insides, two disk like object rotate around the corners, they act as the turrets, and a giant Khaydarin crystal in middle. Zathuris jaw drops at the sight of the mothership hovering in orbit around them. He walks towards the middle of the ship and notices that the crystal underneath is larger than normal and is emanating more psionic energy than normal, so distracted he is that he doesn't notice as the shipmaster walks up behind him.

"An amazing spectacle isn't it?" Zathuris is only able to respond with a nod. "I told you I had a surprise for you, I dont disappoint I hope." A Zealot approaches.

"Sir we must move now if we are to get there in time" The Shipmaster nods his head and presses button, Zathuris, Theresa and Mar all feel their bodies getting lighter as they are lifted off the ground, Theresa instinctively closes her eyes, but she notices a nudge from Mar and she opens her eyes to see the landscape sprawled across her field of vision, rather than the blinding blue light.

When they are standing on the deck with the Shipmaster, they watch as he sits in the captain's seat. Theresa leans over to Zathuris to whisper to him.

"I thought he was captain of the other ship?" Zathuris smiles and nods.

"Yes, he is, but he is also captain of this ship and the second carrier, he is captain of any ship he wants, he is the 'Shipmaster' it is a title that means he commands the entire fleet." They all take a seat. The Shipmaster picks up the intercom and says something, suddenly they can feel the entire ship move forward as they are pushed into their chairs. A few minutes pass and they reach the Terran base.

The ship begins dropping off the Immortals on the hilltops as other transports drop off the infantry and the colossi, the Carriers move into position and quickly begin launching dozens of Interceptors and they swarm the base fire into the lush part of the forests that immediately catch on fire and engulf the base in fire, Zathuris looks out the window to see Terrans scrambling to counter the attack that they never saw coming. When the missile towers are destroyed the infantry rush the base killing all that cross their path.

Zathuris watches through the window as the Colossi scale the hills and fire at groups of soldiers and carving them into crispy slices, two tanks roll in and set up into siege mode and fire at a group of Zealots but they are able to easily dodge the explosions, they quickly swarm the tanks and kill the crew, he notices the blood smeared on the Zealots armor. Very quickly it is obvious that the battle will belong to the Protoss and Zathuris sits down, he looks over to Theresa who is standing by a window watching the carnage.

"It's a slaughter out there." Zathuris nods. "Isn't this enough? There is no need to kill everyone." Zathuris lowers his head.

"Information can only be destroyed if everything that has record of it is destroyed as well, including people." Mars stands up and walks over to his sister and sits her down, suddenly an alarm sounds, making them all jump. "Shipmaster what is that alarm!"

"It's telling us th-"

"Sir an incoming nuke is headed towards the main base, they plan to nuke us out."

"Shipmaster, is there time to recall the attack." The shipmaster Turns towards him, a look of pleading on his face, Zathuris already knew the answer. "Shipmaster, put thrusters to full forward"

"What for, we are not leaving them."

"Were not, we are going to take that nuke for them." The Shipmaster jumps out of his seat.

"Are you insane! That could destroy us. And if not then it will knock us out of the air, we would crash of the surface and incinerate this quadrant of the planet!" Zathuris turn towards one of the other crew members, the one tracking the nuke.

"Can you predict where the nuke is going to hit?" He looks down at the Radar and nods. "Then tell us where and quickly..." He turns towards the Shipmaster. ".. Trust me, i beg of you." The Shipmaster shrugs.

"You are insane but i will try your plan." Immediately he sits back at the seat and closes his eyes, soon the entire ship is moving much faster, everyone is almost blasted back into their seats.

"Sir stop here, the nuke will fall of the far corner of the ship, we will take less damage and it will absorb the attack for our ground units." The Shipmaster turns towards Zathuris.

"Lets hope this works"

"Sir twenty seconds until impact" Zathuris holds onto his seat tighter, the twenty seconds feels like days. "Lowering blast shield over the windows." The Shipmaster snaps his head towards him in panic. "Just so the light won't blind us."

For seconds nothing happens, then a muffled explosion can be heard from the hull, and the entire ship lurches off to the side sending anything not nailed down or anyone not sitting down, falling into a wall.

"Sir we can't orient ourselves, we're going to crash." The Shipmaster swivels in his chair, the gravity stabilizer active in it, to turn towards Zathuris, his expression one of anger.

"Shipmaster concentrate all Purifier beams into a single area." The shipmaster seems confused at first but quickly realizes his plan.

"Of course, heat rises, if you create enough of it we can lift ourselves." The Shipmaster Turns and yells a series of commands into the intercom, a few seconds later the entire ship jolts as twenty purifier beams fire all at once, a few seconds pass and the ship does nothing, and the stress in the room sethe's in the air as if alive, suddenly the entire ship begins to groan in protest as the corner that was hit lifts up, and the ship reorients itself. An automatic voice alerts them to the ships reorientation.

"Opening blast shields" slowly the golden shields rise to reveal a devastated base, most buildings are nothing more than rubble, and anything that is still standing is on fire and slowly collapsing. The remaining troops within the base retreat as the Mothership gets into position, once it is directly over the middle of the base the Shipmaster closes his eyes and concentrates, any troops within eyes view turns to watch as the Khaydarin crystal begins glowing a brilliant blue, then a fiery orange, a few seconds later and a spout of pure energy, hotter than a sun, launches out of the middle of the ship the immediate area around the blast on the ground is turned into molten rock and it quickly spreads out, slowly the mothership rotates around the base engulfing everything in purifying fire, within minutes the hill and the forest that the base was on is nothing more than a pile of molten rock and ash. Within hours every base on the planet is the same way, and the clouds that were puffs of evaporated water, are now ash. A day later they leave for Shakuras, Zathuris looks back to a planet of Lightning storms, ash seas and fiery plains, from once was a verdant and lush planet. He never learned the planets name.

When he returns to Shakuras the citizens greet him with open arms and celebrations, he reports to the Executor and goes to his home to sleep, he allows his companions who are welcomed as well by the community to wander around. His dreams are of the battle before hand, the destruction and the death instilled, and the image of the planet that they left to burn keeps flashing into his mind. He shoots out of sleep in a cold sweat and sends a weak psionic blast at the foot of his bed sending his gear sprawling across the floor. When he gathers it all back up he recalls his dreams and the creatures he saw within. Grotesque creatures that looked like Protoss-Zerg hybrids, he chalks it up to his imagination, but also the picture of a planet, unknown to him, and coordinates, to where, he does not know but has an longing urge to go there.

Chapter 13

"You wish to go where?" The Executor raises an inquisitive eyebrow towards Zathuris.

"I-I'm not exactly sure, I just know I need to go to these coordinates."

"very well, you have done everything that I have asked of you, I suppose you deserve a... vacation. Take the Mothership, I don't believe we will need it any time soon." Zathuris kneels down before the Executor.

"Thank you." He turns and leaves the room as the Executor returns to his work, he leaves the Nexus and meets up with Theresa and Mar.

"You want us to go with you to an unknown planet, with coordinates that could take you... well who knows where, in a Mothership with an small army inside?" Zathuris nods. "You sure know how to treat a girl to a good time" Zathuris smiles, then looks over to Mar.

"Hey I go where she goes." Zathuris nods and turns around, nearly running into the Shipmaster.

"I am commandeering the Mothership so I am the one flying, I will not leave that to an lowly captain to fly the ship of the honored and revered, plus your not leaving me out of this one."

They clasp hands and together they walk to the Fleet Beacon, they step onto the plate and Zathuris hands him the slip of paper with the coordinates.

"This will strain the beacon, it's quite the distance." he starts punching the coordinates into the console that appeared in front of him. The brilliant blue light envelops them and they surge forward as they land on the bridge of the ship, suddenly the ship begins flying forward on its own.

"What is happening, there is no pilot" Theresa grabs onto the nearest solid thing to latch onto.

"The ship doesn't need one if the coordinates are automatically inputted, but it shouldn't have started yet unless the beacon was destroyed." Zathuris catches himself on a poll, before falling over while the Shipmaster fights the force to get the commander's seat. The ship stops with a sudden jolt, everyone flies forward a few feet, and the Shipmaster falls into his chair.

"Status report, where are we?" Zathuris runs over to a window and looks out of it, he stumbles back a few steps as he sees protoss warships floating through space, battle damage apparent, some just have holes blown into the sides, others are ripped entirely apart. Then he looks down to see the planet of his dreams, as they cross a section of it, the distant suns light catches the magnificent structures on the surface and the golden glow makes the entire planet seemingly radiate light.

"Sir it seems where at an... oh Khala its an Protoss colony from Aiur" The only thing heard is the humming of the ship, the Shipmaster looks towards Zathuris, he nods and the ship begins its descent towards the planet.

Chapter 14

As they approach the planet they have a sense of death, on a massive scale, Zathuris notices that the shine was radiating off of the spires and that the ground was red, when they get closer they realize that the entire planet is covered in creep.

"Zathuris, you must turn this boat around" Theresa pleads "We can't take on this much"

Zathuris stands firm in his decision and the Shipmaster goes with his plan, he can feel it too even if he isn't Nerazim, the planet is dead. Slowly they descend onto the surface, the entire surface is covered by creep, but most of it was dead and crusty and gray, the Shipmaster, Theresa, Mar and Zathuris teleport to the surface with a small group of Zealots with them all of which activate their weapons, soon various colors of psionic energy glow down the street, mixing together along with the golden shine of the buildings. They move forward in a defencive box position with the Zealots around the other four.

As they look around they notice that the damage is reascent, probably within the last week, the golden luster of the buildings they pass dim and smudge, and a few consoles they pass by sputter to life for a second only to die again. They follow the main road to the Nexus, when they get there they begin hearing sounds of construction, with their hopes of people surviving they rush around the corner only to immediately dive back behind it realizing that the Zerg were doing something to the Nexus, the Shipmaster risks a peek around the corner, what he sees almost knocks him over, on the Khaydarin crystal a fleshy mass is pulsating, zathuris notices the energy being given out by it is much stronger than he realizes, then he feels a vibrating under his feet, he looks down to see the ground under him seething with life.

"We must go now, the creep is being revived." They all turn to run but are stopped by a series of bluish green psionic blades blocking their path. Theresa almost vomits at the sight, Zealots stand before them but a grotesque version, one born of the Zerg, all over there bodys are fleshy puss welts, and there faces are disformed and oozing various fluids, small tentacles wiggle out of different spots of their body, the most distinctive thing on them is the emblem seared onto the torso.

"The Akilae, I thought them lost. At the fall of Aiur i fought alongside a few of them." The Shipmaster turns to ask who, but decided better of it when the infested Zealots begin moving forward, the front row of Zealots charge them, quickly hacking them away, but soon more take their place and before long they are being overwhelmed.

"My brothers, aim for the teleportation units, we don't know where it could take them." Theresa and Mar take position behind the wall of Zealots and began firing into them, soon the entire area is alight with a blue glow of plasma shields being battered, a few sequencing cracks are heard and another one falls over, its head mostly disintegrated. Zathuris disappears into the shadows and moves in behind the group of infested Zealots, he begins hacking away at them, one falls then another, soon he has cut a swath through the group that allows them to escape from the group, they take shelter in a nearby forge.

"What has happened here, why is this happening. The Zerg have never been able to incorporate our DNA with theirs." Zathuris nods in agreement, Theresa stands up to join with the group.

"The research that we have destroyed, that's what it was about, oh how could we have been so stupid, why else would we have been destroying Zerg habitats, and research facilities with dead Protoss in them" Zathuris slams her against a wall.

"What research! you mean all this time the humans have been trying to create this, answer me!" he slams his fist into the wall next to her, she shrieks, Mar trys to pull him off of her but Zathuris is too strong and flings him back, Mar goes to try again but he is stopped by two Psi blades pointed at him.

"Ye-yes, they have been trying to create these for the war, they are the only viable option for the Terrans to kill an Overmind, I believe that is why they took the bodies of those Dark Templars." Zathuris eyes hold a deep rage within and begin glowing red as the Psi energy begins leaking out of his body, he goes to punch a hole through the wall but is interrupted by the sound of someone gurgling on their own blood, and a few gasps, he turns around to see one of the Zealots that was holding back Mar, hovering a foot off the ground and spikes protruding out of his body, he coughs up more blood and falls to the ground as the spikes retract and the tentacle returns to the host, behind the dead body they behold an impossible sight, an Archon.

Chapter 15

At first it looks like a normal Archon but then a closer examination shows that the Aura around it is is black as night, and the body of the Archon is beyond corrupted, every joint has a curved spike coming out of it, and its face is scarred into a permanent wicked grin, quickly it sends out a barrage of tentacles, impaling more of the Zealots who weren't fast enough to dodge it. A group of Zealots use the little Psi ability they have to turn into to pure energy, and like lightning they surge forward towards the Corrupted Archon, it noticeably smiles wider, he reaches out and an arc of abyssal energy launching forward and envelope two of them, there screams reverberate through the room as they disappear into a blue mist, the last one reaches the Archon but is cut down by a series of spikes that shoot out of the Archons body. The Shipmaster and Zathuris fall to the ground in disbelief, Theresa and Mar run over to them but everyone is knocked over by a wave of psionic energy that fires from Zathuris, the Shipmaster regains his wits, he grabs Theresa and Mar and begins running with them, Theresa turns around to glimpse the red glow around Zathuris, her heart almost stops.

Zathuris dives into the shadows and out to strike at the Archon just as quickly, as its spikes, one after another the spikes are cut off, the Archon frowns in frustration as its unable to kill this new foe that seems to radiate so much energy, the feeling of hunger gnaws at the Archon to feast on this source of Void energy. It sends out tentacles to envelope Zathuris but sends out a pulse of Psi energy forcing the tentacles to hesitate, to long Zathuris spins around severing all of them, the Archon wails in pain, as it slowly begins to lose life energy, it falls to its knees to the power before it, the immensity becoming a physical force almost, Zathuris walks up to it, a wicked grin spread across his face, one last desperate attempt the Archon closes his eyes and concentrates on the dead bodies around it, suddenly they begin to twitch then go on to full fledged seizures, as tiny tentacles sprout out of the bodies, soon they slowly arise and shamble towards Zathuris. He doesn't hesitate, the red glowing around his eyes turns blood red. With a slice of his ruby warp blade he fells 3 of them, they fall apart as they hit the ground, soon they are all dead, permanently. He turns back towards the Archon, its back on its feet with the same wicked grin, Zathuris charges at it and thrusts put it holds out a hand and the weapon stops dead, Zathuris is unable to move. A violent and angry raspy voice invades his mind.

"Foolish Templar, you will be destroyed, and I will feast on your Psi energy." Zathuris tries to move but is unable to, suddenly the Archon's head snaps forward and its mouth opens wider than it should, and keeps going. As a last attempt Zathuris fires a concentrated stream of a Psi blast, the mouth snaps shut and the Archon stares at him curiously, suddenly the Archon grasp on him is removed, Zathuris almost falls over not expecting it, but he straightens up as the Archon falls back down to its knees, reddish black ichor drops down under it and the aura around begins to dim, Zathuris raises his blade above his arm, and in a rose colored slash, the Archon falls over and a pool of the ichor spreads out amongst the body, suddenly the floor rushes up to meet him.

He wakes up in the medical bay of the Mothership with the Shipmaster sitting next to him, when he notices Zathuris awaken he rushes over to him.

" Are you feeling better?" Zathuris nods slightly in response.

"Where is Theresa and Mar?"

"They are in a cargo bay room, I believe sleeping." Zathuris sits up with a grunt. "you might want to know, we found a Terran space station in orbit around the planet, we have held off boarding without you."

"Thank you, we must head there immediately." Zathuris stands and puts on his gear.

"Do wish me to get the Terrans?" Zathuris lowers his head.

"No." The Shipmaster opens his mouth but Zathuris cuts him off. "They can't be trusted, they knew the research i was trying to destroy this entire time." The Shipmaster bows and leaves, Zathuris looks out the window to the planet, again they angle themselves so the planet seemingly shines, but now they know its true heart.

Chapter 16

They fly towards the space station cautiously, not sure of what defenses might have been put into place, a scan of it shows no life signs, Zathuris, the Shipmaster and ten Zealots plus two Stalkers all teleport into cargo room of the space station, immediately they already know something is wrong, they move through the dim hallways of the space station encountering locked doors and smeared blood everywhere.

They finally reach the end of the hallway and encounter a blast door, the Zealots work together and melt a hole away from the door for them to go through, they immediately notice a smell of rotting death, off to one side of a catwalk they are on is blocked by a pile of dead bodies, mostly marine pieces with a few scientist, they continue down the middle catwalk, they notice they are above what looks like cages but all that are in the cages are piles of gore that is discoloured. They reach the end of the catwalk and open the door that was unlocked in front of them, it slides open with a grinding crunch, and a dead scientist falls out of the doorway, causing the Zealots to activate their weapons, they quickly pile into the room, the stalkers Blink through the door since they can't fit. Inside there are a series of console leading up to a main screen, several dead scientist and marines are scattered about, they find the cause of the battle, next to a dead marine is a dead Zealot with a knife jammed into his skull. Worse yet the Zealot was infested, Zathuris gets a look of disgust.

"Lets see what these computers can tell us" Zathuris walks up to a console and taps on it once, then twice, finally it flickers to life and fills the dim room with a golden amber light, Zathuris looks around and finds data recordings, he clicks the first one and it brings up a Terran scientist, older by the looks of it but with black medium length hair.

"Datalog day 1: We have begun testing the Zerg hybrids, currently we can't get the Protoss DNA to mix with the Zerg DNA, but we have been successful in controlling the Zerg test subjects with the Psi Emitter that we constructed. But its like they were created to be exact opposite, we're going to have to try and alter one or the others DNA to make them compatible: End Datalog" Zathuris skips forward a few.

"Datalog Day 13: We have Successfully created the first Zerg-Protoss hybrid, it is extremely powerful, but docile, while we can't control it we can create and contain them. We had to modify the Protoss DNA so that it would be similar to the Zerg, otherwise it would either kill the test sample or itself: End Datalog"

"Datalog Day 27: We have completed the ability to control them, it was only a matter of finding the right frequency on the Psi Emitter, while we cannot yet control the hybrids and the normal Zerg yet, I believe we will be able to soon: End Datalog" The Shipmaster tries to stop Zathuris but he shrugs him off and selects another.

"Datalog Day 40: We have acquired a new type of test subject today, the Protoss very own, Nerazim as they are natively called, with them we can study the Dark templars then turn them, they will be unstoppable: End Datalog"

"Datalog Day 42: Today we tested the Hybrids in a combat scenario against a base of Raynor's Raiders in the Shakuras system, they performed flawlessly, we didn't lose a single test subject, all casualties were with the normal Zerg. The fools had just the right frequency on a scanner they had skip over the Hybrids, they things even ripped out the chip that sent the signal and gave it to us, I didn't know what to do with it so I sent it back to Jim himself. Oh what I would give to have seen his face: End Datalog"

"Datalog Day 53: We came across a Protoss city today, the subjects got restless, we had an incident... three people were killed. But it was fascinating to discover that they have the ability to turn the creatures they kill to be Zerg: End Datalog"

"Datalog Day 49: We sent an escape pod of the Hybrids down to the surface of the protoss planet, we shall be monitoring their progress: End Datalog"

"Datalog Day 50:The group of Hybrids we sent down have already established themselves into the planet, when they landed they destroyed the outpost they landed in, they used the dead to bolster their ranks, they have already swelled to ten times the amount originally, and they have built a hive of sorts out of the remnants of the Nexus that was there. We shall continue to monitor their progress: End Datalog"

"Datalog Day 53: The Hybrids have destroyed the Protoss cities and enveloped the entire planet in a fleshy substance most accustomed to the Zerg. We have created the ultimate fighting force, they can destroy something as advanced as the Protoss, in a matter of days, imagine what they could do if they got loose: End Datalog"

"Datalog Day 59: The Hybrids have been showing an unusual amount of intelligence down on the planet, along with instinct, though they are technically Zerg they still build in a style that seems Prototic, they have constructed Carrier comparison ships that are biomechanical, and space worthy, we must remember to destroy those and wipe it from their memory: End Datalog"

Zathuris Clicks on the last one and the video pops up with alarms blaring in the background and the human very panicked. "Datalog Day 64: We have screwed up, we created an entirely new race of Zerg based off of the Protoss genome, they created a hive overnight somehow and it created more of them, including an Archon, which seemed to be a leader type for them, they have broken loose and are killing everyone, oh god what ha-: End Datalog" The video goes fuzzy as the man is impaled by a tentacle and thrown onto the camera seemingly breaking it. Zathuris slashes the console in half.

"Zathuris please calm down, if these things are Protoss th-" Zathuris head snaps towards him an face of disgust and rage painted on him.

"These things are not Protoss, they are abominations, and like the rest of the Zerg we will cleanse these monstrosities from the universe." Zathuris sends a pulse of energy through his arm into his weapon, it fires up in a brilliant Amethyst color, the Shipmaster takes a few steps back. "They are here." The shipmaster cocks his head slightly confused but as if on cue a Zealot falls to his knees after coughing up blood then drops dead, a spike sticking out of his back.

The stalkers immediately blink into the room at the war cries of the Zealots, they start firing into the rush of Zerg that start flooding the room, a dozen Zealot-Hybrids, and three Hydralisks collide with a wall of Zealots and are cut down by shots from the Stalkers. Zathuris doesn't bother with guile, he immediately rushes the nearest Hydralisk, it reacts with a slash but he counters it with his blade, severing the claw, it howls in pain and swings wildly at him, he easily dodges the attacks and thrusts sending his warp blade through the torso of the Hydralisk, it squirms a little then goes limp, he throws it off of him and rushes another Hydralisk, soon all the Hybrid Zerg are dead, leaving seven of the Zealots left standing, Zathuris calms and his Warp blade returns to the emerald color originally.

"We have to destroy the planet." The Shipmaster looks at him.

"Destroy an entire planet? Thats almost genocide, but everything on there is either dead or..." He lets his voice drop off.

"lets look on their computers, these Terranes may be stupid but they are also paranoid, they should have a contingency plan." Zathuris finds an undamaged console, and taps on the keypad, it spurs to life, flickering every now and then, he types in emergency procedures and it brings up a series of things to do, including contamination of the base, he clicks on it and it explains how the base is equipped with eight hundred megatons of nuclear material in case of a full on infection, to be detonated with insertion of the access code by an chief administrator.

"Sir can't we just use the Mothership." The Shipmaster turns towards Zathuris and the Zealot.

"No, the Khaydarin crystal was cracked during the last firing sequence, if fired again it could destroy the entire ship along with the solar system, and by our scans the rest of the system is teeming with life, which means these Hybrids haven't gone to space yet." Zathuris looks up from the computer, a fear in his eyes that the Shipmaster doesn't miss, suddenly a stalker in the corner falls forward, its leg sliced clean off and gushing blood and mechanical fluids, then as quickly as it started the stalker is dead, and after a second the Zealots are surrounding the Shipmaster but a gust they feel a gust of wind and all the Zealots fall over various spots on their throats slashed or their heads roll off completely. The other stalker panics and blinks to another side of the room and randomly fires in fear, Zathuris dodges the blasts but the Shipmaster is hit, his shields take the hit and he flies backwards he collides with a console and is knocked out, soon the stalker is killed, but not before a blast strikes home on one of the cloaked figures, to Zathuris amazement the creature comes out of the shadows and look down to its torso which is just a gaping hole, it dies with a look of shock on its face. Zathuris stands up in a defencive position ready for any assault to come.

Chapter 17

Zathuris is stunned and sickened by what he sees, three Dark Templars appear before him, but there not, their faces are horribly distorted and twisted into masks of pain, little wiggly worm like things stick out all over their bodies, and there are what look like permanent scars or burns all over them. He has to hold back the urge to scream.

They stand around him confused, they can sense that he is a Dark Templar like them but that he is different, they are confused and hesitant. Zathuris uses their hesitation, and his anger, his Warp blade turns to a blinding white color, the white hot flame of fury. The creatures can feel the power radiating off of the figure in front of them, suddenly there is a white arc in front of them, the one that it should have hit looks down but notices nothing, realizing they are being attacked they immediately register Zathuris as an enemy, the one sliced at rears back to slice at him but suddenly feels a sharp pain in its torso, its dead before its upper half of its body hits the ground. The other two react in turn, a blast of dark energy is sent towards their enemy and their weapons are activated, the light in the room noticeably dims as the blades are so dark they seem to soak in the light, but Zathuris is unconcerned, he thrusts at the one to his right, it reacts by attempting to parry the attack but to its surprise its weapon dissipates as Zathuris blade cuts straight through it and into its body, he surges up nearly slicing the pitiful creature in half, he spins on his heel following through with his blade on the third, its face shear fear as it falls to the ground.

He looks around to all the dead, his soldiers under his command, and his brothers that were mutated because of the Terrans, he releases a scream so powerful it leaves a large dent in the hull of the space station, he drops to his knees and pounds the ground with his fist having no other way to express his anger and pain before he descends through into darkness.

He awakens to have the Shipmaster nudging him awake, Zathuris is still groggy, he hears him say something but can't make out any of the words, suddenly he sees the body of one of the Zealots stand up, a spike jets out of its hand and thrusts at the Shipmaster, before even thinking Zathuris twists the Shipmaster out of the way and under him, suddenly he can feel a sharp pain in his back and the feeling of something rushing into his back, the shock wakes him up and he slams the creature off of himself and stabs it with his warp blade, suddenly the floor rushes up to meet him, he manages to pull himself up but he can feel a crawling under his skin and the pain of his cells dying.

"Zathuris no, no, no, you should have let me take it, it is an honor to sacrifice myself for the honored and revered one" He looks around confused and bewildered as to what to do.

"You will do as i ask, Shipmaster, i will not survive this as myself, I - Unh- I can feel it changing me, you will go back to the Mothership, and you will fly it back home, you will take care of Theresa and Mar, and you do well to forget about me." The Shipmaster shakes his head.

"I am not leaving you here" Zathuris barely gets on his feet

"You have no choice" Before the Shipmaster has a chance to refute, Zathuris punches the recall button on his armor, a flash of blue light and the Shipmaster is gone.

"I'm sorry." With his last will power he uses his Psionic abilities to send the space station into a descending orbit around the planet, he rushes over to the console and arms the nukes on the Space station and waits, the last thing he knows before he collides with the planet is how can he can please the Overmind.

The crew on the ship is startled when there Shipmaster suddenly appears on the deck. He darts over to the window just in time to see a brilliant flash, suddenly the entire planet is engulfed in a churning fire cloud, soon the bright cracks form around the planet's surface and the planets pieces drift away, the entire planet is obliterated, all that remains is and ovulated core and giant rocks. The Shipmaster turns towards the crew. "Get us out of here."

Epilogue

Ten years pass and original Executor dies, and Shipmaster Deraz Get'zil takes over as Executor, but he will still take control of various ships, after he was sworn in he commanded a statue was to be erected for Zathuris Ast' Teleran, for his sacrifice for his people, and the devastating blow he had on the war. The Executor had also created a new holiday in his name, to be celebrated with a feast. Theresa and Mar split from Raynors Raiders to join with the Protoss to improve relations and destroy any research like that again.


End file.
